Hanging with Friends

I was up at 7am and getting in a little LOTRO play before my buddy Rupert arrived. He was coming over to hang out with me for the day. It's been a while since we got to hang out so we arranged to do it today. He arrived around noon and we headed out to lunch. After lunch we went to Target to look around, I had a few things I needed to get.

Once we were back at my place we sat down to watch Les Miserable. I have a screener copy of it and Rupert saw it in the theater and loved it and asked if we could watch it again. I've only seen it once with my buddy Chris out in Montana so I was up for another viewing. The movie ended just in time as we needed to get ready to head out with Anthony and Michele to Dallas' "I got a job" dinner party.

We were to first to arrived at Pitfire Grill out in North Hollywood. They had a table set aside for us so we sat down and waited for others to arrive. Little by little folks showed up until we were a large party of 20. It was great seeing everyone. Some I'd hadn't seen in months, others only a week. We sat around and talked, ate and had a great time until about 10pm. Michele (who is pregnant) was tired and since Rupert and I drove with these guys we had to call it a night. It was alot of fun catching up with folks. Whenever I'm with this group of friends it alway amazes me on how lucky I really am.

Got home around 11pm, said goodbye to Rupert and headed to bed. A very long but enjoyable Saturday.

I want to mention also that today is Greg Aronowitz's Birthday. I met Greg a few years back working on the Guild. He is one of the most talented and creative guys I know. He's friends with the likes of Spielberg and Lucas just to name a few. He's worked on many blockbuster movies and has done so many great things. I can just sit next him and listen to his incredible stories all day. Anyways I wanted to wish him a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY and to say how thankful I am that he is part of my life.

You can check out Greg's FANTASTIC blog HERE.

Rings, Wings & Giants

Got up at 7am and jumped onto LOTRO. I got my new roommate Anthony to join so we started questing together. It's fun playing LOTRO solo but it's so much better when you're part of a fellowship. Because I'm playing more I'm actually understanding the game alot better. I'm understanding "deeds" and "instances" and such. If you read my blog you know I have four characters. I have my main character Drialdo, he's a Hobbit, I have my 1st alt character Kiwyn, she's a human, my 2nd alt character is Gillthilion, he's an elf and my 3rd alt character Arikk and he's a Dwarf. Of course Drialdo is my highest leveled character as I play him the most. I did manage to get Kiwyn up to level 25 and then started working on Gillthilion.

I'm trying to get each one of my characters to at least level 20, so I can buy a stead and travel around faster. I manage to get Gillthilion to level 20 today, which made me super happy. Now it's time to get Arikk my Dwarf to level 20, he's currently level 13 and depending on how much I play it may take me a week or so to do that. Anyways if you want to read more about my LOTRO characters here's a blog post I did back in January.

For the evening my new roommates Anthony and Michele wanted to take me out to dinner as a Thank You. We went to Chili's and had a nice dinner. I of course am a creator of habit so when I find something I like I tend to eat it over and over and Chili's had some great Chicken strips with buffalo wing sauce. Afterwards we headed over to Edwards to watch a movie. We were debating on seeing Jack the Giant Slayer or Oz: The Great and Powerful. We agreed that Jack will be leaving theaters sooner so we should see it now and that's what we did.

If you don't know this movie is here's a brief synopsis: The ancient war between humans and a race of giants is reignited when Jack, a young farmhand fighting for a kingdom and the love of a princess, accidentally opens a gateway between the two worlds.

This movie was shot many years ago and because of behind the scenes drama it took a while for it to be released. The original title was Jack the Giant Killer, there is even a trailer with that title. But I guess Killer didn't test well so it was changed to Slayer.

My Review... As you all know if you are a regular reader of my blog that I'm a HUGE Fantasy lover. I think I like Fantasy more then Science Fiction (if i had to choose, thank goodness I don't have to). So I was looking forward to this movie. Of course it's based on Jack and the Beanstalk. When I left the theater I was satisfied. I thought the movie was good, it has a simply story, great effects and was just a fun adventure ride. Bryan Singer was the director and I have enjoyed all of his work. It had Ewen McGregor, who I adore and he was great in this. I enjoyed the little nods to the original fairytale and they fact that Fee, Fi, Fo and Fum were names of Giants. There were some great laughs and excellent action sequences. I would defiantly watch this again and will be buying it on blu-ray when it comes out. One thing I really enjoyed about the writing/character were the bad guys, they were so bad I was literally annoyed by them and when their end came I was extremely satisfied. I give Jack the Giant Slayer a solid B

Podcasting Vs. LOTRO

Since I started playing Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO) I have been struggling with my other hobby, podcasting. I currently have six podcasts, but only three really running at the moment; MASH 4077 Podcast, Alien Nation: The Newcomers Podcast and Knights of the Guild podcast. Confessions of a Fanboy is still going but I haven't released a new episode since the end of last year. Also My Gimpy Life podcast is on hiatus until a second season of that webseries is announced (if it actually happens) and my sixth podcast The Geek Roundtable has been in the works since October of 2010 but still hasn't seen the light of day.

Anyways I feel like when I do have free time all I want to do is play LOTRO but I have a great group of listeners who enjoy my podcasts and being a podcast listener myself I know how much I hate it when a favorite podcast of mine doesn't come out on a regularly scheduled time table.

So today I forced myself to finish my next Alien Nation podcast as it comes out in 3 days. I still have another MASH podcast to do and would love to get a KOTG and a new Confessions of a Fanboy done. But the call of the game got to me and as soon as I was done with the Alien Nation podcast I told myself that it was good enough and I should reward myself with playing a few hours of LOTRO.

Now I know better, I know when I start playing LOTRO I lose track of time and the next thing I know it's been six, seven, twelve hours but I was weak and didn't care. Of course after playing I'm upset with myself as I didn't get as much work done on podcasts as I would have liked. It's a vicious cycle, but it's tough finding a nice balance between the two hobbies.. and I'm sure I'll continue to struggle with it for the foreseeable future.. wish me luck :)

LOTRO & Buffy

Today was my first official "out of work" day, since being let go. So what better to do then to play Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO) all day. I woke up at 8am and started playing. Six hours later I realized that I was hungry and needed to take a break. Time sure flies when you're questing and killing orcs.

I was heading over to Roberts for some Buffy Re-Watch but first I had to stop by my old work to drop off some documents and they surprised me with a cake. It was very nice of them but of course the EP who had me fired acted all kind and sweet. I did find out after I left, that she went around to each person and tried to do some damage control. She found out that I did email everyone the night I was let go and when she said in the meeting the next day that I decided to leave, she was caught in a lie... so stupid!!
 
Anyways.. I headed over to Roberts for some pizza and Buffy re-watch. We're well into Season Four and tonight's episode were The Initiative, Pangs, Something Blue, and  Hush.

The Initiative was better then I remembered, we find out about Riley and the operatives running around the college. We have "neutered" Spike. Lot's of story moments and laughs.

Pangs was kind of like a "monster of the week" episode with a vengeful Native American spirit. Buffy wants to have the perfect Thanksgiving. Once again this episode is full of Joss witting writing and so many laughs.

Something Blue was another great episode, Willow is still upset after the breakup with Oz so she does a spell that, of course, back fires and causes her friends to have a few issues. Giles goes blind, Xander attracts monsters, Buffy and Spike are a couple and start planning their wedding. Lots of laughs and again great character dialogue.

And for our final episode of the night, it's one of my favorites "Hush". I've been waiting to share this episode with Robert since we started. Love this episode, it's creepy, funny and so amazing that two thirds of the episode is done in silence. And it also introduces one of my favorite characters on Buffy.. Tara. 

So we had four great episodes tonight. Lot's of fun and laughs. Can't wait to do this all again next week.

The Next Day

So yesterday I was let go and today they asked if I would come in and show the new guy who was replacing me around. Give him the low down on what's been going on. Of course me being me I say yes. I figured it would also be nice to say goodbye to everyone.  I did emailed the staff last night and informed them that I was let go and that this new guy would be replacing me. I got a lot of very supportive emails in return... that was nice.

When the EP got into work she called a meeting. We all gathered and she began by saying "Well Kenny has decided to leave us." several heads turned to me with the expression of  "I thought they fired you" look. I was shocked and I really don't know why since she's "saving face" by not telling everyone that she's the one who had me fired. Instead all is well as she continue to live in her fairytale land of crazy.

I didn't say anything as I really didn't want start up anything. Several of the employees came to my office later and said.. So when did you quit.. and I said  jokingly I guess it was moments before they fired me. It's hilarious to me that she blatantly lied in front of the entire staff and everyone knew since they got the email I sent out the night before.  Just goes to show you what kind of person she really is.

Anyways I hung out at work most of the day giving the new guy the low down and the great thing is he said from what he's seen I did a fantastic job and he really doesn't see what he's going to be able to do unless they make the changes that I've been saying they need to do since the beginning. But that's no longer my problem and it feels great.

Gonna take the rest of this week off and then begin my job search next Monday.

Wait... What!!!!

So today at 5pm I got an email from one of my bosses asking to come over to the main office to go over the post schedule. We were to meet at 6pm. I left my office and headed over to the main office and got there at 6 on the dot. I walked into his office and we started to talk post schedule. About 5 minutes in he started to talk about the EP and how we are just not meshing well. I knew then that something was up. And sure enough seconds later he said I just think it would be best if we parted ways.

I was being let go, fired. This has only happened one other time in my career. But instead of being sad or upset I was jumping for joy. I would never quit a job, I've only done that once in my career. I just suck it up and push through even though I'm miserable. So being let go is a win win for me. I get out of the hellish job, get away from a very unprofessional and bullying Executive Producer and I get to collect unemployment while I look for another job.

I think my reaction caught him off guard. I think he expect me to be upset and walk out, not smile and be so happy. But it's a relief, I know I did a great job. Everyone I worked with have said that I did a great job with the circumstances that were given to me. The only person who didn't like me was the EP. I didn't burn any bridges with this company. And I don't care if I burned any bridges with the EP as I never plan to work with her again.

After the meeting and he saw that I was in a good mood, he asked if I would talk to the new Post Super, the person replacing me. He seemed like a nice guy and I wish him the best of luck.

They asked if I would come in tomorrow to help settle in the new guy, I said sure. They said they would pay me for the entire week, so that's cool. I don't mind coming in and helping out for the day.. so that's the plan. After tomorrow I'll be unemployed once again. I plan to take the rest of the week off and then start the process of finding another and hopefully more enjoyable job.

Oh Willow!!!!

Today I found out that one of my favorite fantasy movies of all time Willow actually had a trilogy of books written afterwards:

"Lucas outlined the Chronicles of the Shadow War trilogy to follow the film and hired comic book writer/novelist Chris Claremont to adapt them into a series of books. They take place about fifteen years after the original film and feature the now teenage Elora Danan as the central character." The three books are Shadow Moon (1995), Shadow Dawn (1996) and finally Shadow Star (2000).

I searched for audio books (my preferred way of reading books) but it looks like only the first book was made into an audio book and it's only on cassette. Guess I'll be buying the actual books and reading them. I can't wait to delve back into that world.

Souffles, Podcasts, LOTRO and Friends

Today I woke up and my new roommate Anthony was making some breakfast souffles. I've never had a souffle but it sounds very tasty. This is defiantly an upside to having roommates. Breakfast was ready and man was it good. I think I'm going to make something similar for my next movie marathon weekend.

I went to go work on my Alien Nation podcasts as it's due on the 10th and found out all that work I put into it yesterday was for nothing. The avi files that I created yesterday and uploaded were not good and there was nothing in them. So instead of finishing up my Alien Nation podcast I had to come up with another way of burning the DVD's and extracting the audio. This process took about three hours. During this time I could have worked on another podcast but instead I opted to catch up on some TV.

Once the videos were done an uploaded I really wasn't in the podcasting mood anymore so I pushed it off once again :( It's a problem that I have.  Instead I played some LOTRO. My bud Chris hasn't been around (busy with work) so I've been playing alone. I'm been using my female human Kiwyn alot since I reserve my Hobbit Drialdo for play with Chris. Kiwyn is leveling up nicely.

For the evening I headed over to my friend Sebastian's place. They moved a few days ago and I was going to check it out and have dinner with him and his girlfriend Amanda. It was great seeing these guys, I haven't seen Sebastian since before Christmas. We had dinner, complained about our jobs and had a nice evening.

When I got home Anthony and Michele were home and I checked out their first picture (ultrasound) of their baby.. looked like a peanut.. though a very cute peanut :) I called it a night and went to bed. I am not looking forward to work tomorrow.

Just Another Geeky Saturday

Woke up around 7am and got straight to work on clearing out my guest room. I don't think I blogged about this  but my friends Anthony and Michele need a place to live temporarily (a few months) and they asked if they could rent out my guest room. Of course I love helping out friends when I can and the extra $ will come in handy as well as the extra help around the house to get it ready to be sold. So they were moving in later tonight and I wanted to get the room ready for them. I had to clean out the closest and the TV cabinet. It only took about an hour to box up all that extra stuff and take it to the garage. I realized that I'm going to have to do some major thinning out of my stuff before I move. That's going to be an adventure in it's self.

Anyways after cleaning the guest room I moved on to working on my Alien Nation podcast. The program I used to rip episodes is not working for some reason so I have to find an alternate program. Took me a few tries but I think I found one that will work for me. I ripped the next two episodes and imported them into the Avid (this took about an hour and a half).

While the importing was happening I made some breakfast and watched the season finale of Star Wars The Clone Wars, This is the fifth season finale and there has been so much hype about the fate of Ahsoka and weather she would die at the end. As all Star Wars fans know Ahsoka does not appear in Episode 3 and since The Clone Wars takes place between Episodes 2 & 3 something has to happen to her. I've been a HUGE Ahsoka fan since she first appeared in the Clone Wars movie and was really worried how they were going to end her story. ::SPOILERS:: I was actually very happy with how they did it. I mean I'm not happy that she's gone.. but the final four part series was really well done and for her to be kicked out of the Jedi order and then asked back only to decline the offer was fantastic. The actors and animators did an amazing job at conveying the struggle within Ahsoka upon leaving the order and the pain Anikin was feeling, as though he had let her down. I was in tears by the end and speaking of the end the final scene of the episode was just AMAZING!!! ::END SPOILERS::

I don't know if Star Wars The Clone Wars is coming back for a sixth season. I know they have episodes in the can and have been working on them for over a year but with the recent purchase of Lucasfilm by Disney everything seems to be up in the air. We do know that it won't be returning to the Cartoon Network schedule, but will one of the Disney channels pick it up... I sure hope so. I loved getting new Star Wars every week, but if this is the end.. it was a FANTASTIC five year run and I loved every minute of Star Wars The Clone Wars.

After Clone Wars I jumped on to Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO) and played for an hour before heading out to the bank to deposit some checks and El Pollo Loco to get some lunch.

When I got back I was still in a LOTR mood (I know when am I not) So I decided to pop on The Hobbit. This is only my second time watching this screener and my fifth time seeing the movie. I have been jonesing for some Hobbit for a month so I finally decided that I would take a few hours and watch, thought I had tons of podcasting stuff to do.

The Hobbit ended and I jumped back on LOTRO for an hour before Anthony and Michele (my new roomies) arrived. We sat around and chatted for about and hour and a half before they called it a night and I, of course, jumped back on to LOTRO and played for another hour. Finally went to bed close to midnight.

The Downside to Social Media

I love social media, it's helped me find new friends and old friends who I've lost contact with. It's allowed me to promote my podcasts, blog about my life and keep up on friends and family that I can't see everyday. But there is a downside to social media. It's seeing when friends tweet or post on facebook about a get together, or going out to dinner or an event that they attended together and you were not invited.

It's hard to not be jealous and then you start to question why they didn't invite you.  It can mess with your head if you allow it. I admit that I'm bummed when things like this happen but I can also understand as I post a lot of things on twitter, facebook & blogspot about hanging with friends and I'm sure the friends that are not hanging with us are feeling the same thing. I guess there really is no easy answer to this.  No one wants to feel left out, but sometimes it's bound to happen even if it's unintentional.

MASH 4077 Podcast Episode 49

Listen on itunes http://tinyurl.com/MASH4077itunes or Stitcher Radio http://ow.ly/hEZUg. You can listen and get a direct download from our main website... http://MASH4077Podcast.com/

Show Notes

Kenny Mittleider from Knights of the Guild, Alien Nation: The Newcomers Podcast & Confessions of a Fanboy Podcast, Simon Meddings from Waffle On Podcast, & Al Kessel from Tales from the Mouse House, Fast Forward & Just Because Podcast discuss one of the most successful and longest running television series in history.. M*A*S*H

Today we cover Season 3, Episode #1 - The General Flipped at Dawn

49th Episode Overall
Directed by Larry Gelbart
Written by Jim Fritzell & Everett Greenbaum
Production code B308
Original air date September 10, 1974

Set during the Korean War in the 1950’s

Plot Summary: An inspection by the strict Major General Bartford Hamilton Steele puts the 4077th on edge. The final straw comes when he orders the unit to move the camp closer to the front to be more economical and to show that a M*A*S*H unit should be mobile. On an inspection tour of the new site with Blake and Burns, Steele orders Blake to follow general military protocol in saluting him, contradicting the specific protocol not to do so when in sight of the enemy. They are promptly shot at by snipers. Steele gives Blake and Burns a choice between fighting or having lunch (Blake and Burns choose lunch). When Hawkeye sends a chopper off with a patient instead of letting the general use it to scout the new site, Steele calls for a court martial for Pierce and Blake. When Steele asks the African-American chopper pilot for a musical number and then demonstrates by dancing around singing Mississippi Mud, the Army hurriedly closes the court-martial, and Steele is sent back to the United States, where he is promoted to Lieutenant General and placed in charge of Northeast Asia.

Hope you enjoy it, Kenny

SDCC Hotel, Willow and Hobbites

Woke up to an email that informed me that I did not get any of my hotel choices and that I have been "waitlisted" for hotels at San Diego Comic Con. I quickly got online to see if any of my friends got in and the few I talked to the news was grim. I quickly started to panic and jump online to search for hotels around the area.. I just wanted to book something just in case. I did find a 2 star hotel just under a mile away from the convention center. It was going to cost just over $2050 for the four nights, but splitting that four ways made it roughly $515 per person and I didn't think that was bad so I booked it.

As soon as I did that my buddy Robert facebooked that he got into the Westin. That's only 9 blocks from the convention center and at the amazingly low price of $251 a night. I quickly contacted him and asked if my brother, Chris and I could be the other three of the quartet. He added out names to the rooms and quickly booked it. We are still waiting on confirmation but it looks like I got me a pretty nice and close hotel room for SDCC at a very affordable price. I'm keeping the hotel I booked earlier just to be safe. Once we get the confirmation I'll offer it to some friends to see if they want it before I cancel it.

Warwick Davis tweeted that they were screening Willow on the big screen down in Santa Monica on Saturday to celebrate it's 25th anniversary and bluray release. The writer is going to be there to talk about the making of the movie. I really wanted to go to this so I tweeted and facebooked to see if anyone wanted to join me.. so far no takers. I have to decide if I can't find anyone to go with me will I go alone.. I do love Willow and would love to see it on the big screen again.

Hobbit news.. the 3rd movie There and Back Again which was slated to come out the summer of 2014 has been pushed to December just like parts 1 and 2. I think this makes since as The Lord of the Rings came out December 2001, December 2002 and December 2003. So now The Hobbit will be coming out in December 2012, December 2013 and December 2014. I can't wait for part two of this EPIC trilogy.

Work & Podcasts

Got to work and got a call from the EP of the show to inform that how disappointed she was in me by not sticking around work last night (which I did, but she claims I did not). I mentioned that I was up until 4:30am to get the output done but that didn't seem to register with her. Was a crappy way to start my day.

I was happy with it was time to leave work. I was exhausted as I only slept about 3 1/2 hours yesterday so I was looking forward to getting home and doing nothing. But once I was home I realized that I have a MASH podcast that is due to be released in a few days since it's Feb and only 28 days this month. I finished half of it but then ran into some issues with the audio from the version of the show I found online (I mentioned this in a previous blog post about the laugh tracks). I haven't had time so really do anything so I just went with the audio that I had, laugh tracks and all. About midnight I finished and it turned out pretty good. I mean I hate the laugh tracks as I find it distracting but at least this will be the only episode with that kind of audio. I was just glad to be done so I could go to bed and get some much needed rest.

Hotels & Long Nights

This morning at 9am a group of us got online to register for our hotel rooms at San Diego Comic Con. SDCC gets blocks of rooms for a special low price as the hotels around the convention center normally raise their prices to three times the amount they would normally get. This was my first year trying to get one. The process went smoothly and in about seven minutes my application was sent. Now we wait to hear if we get any of our choices.

Today was a another busy and frustration day at work. We had a meeting in the morning and the EP wanted to talk about the email that I had sent out last night. Now she isn't calling me out by name but everyone in the office knows who she is talking about. She complains about post and how it's run and lack of communication, blah blah blah. It was so obvious that several of the story producers and editors came up to me afterwards and said, "Oh we think you're doing a fantastic job", and "I couldn't imagine all the stuff you have to deal with". What the EP said was hurtful but I've come to expect that from her. I was told that she always has a "whipping" person that gets blamed for everything and it looks like I'm going to be that person on this show. It was great to hear that everyone else thinks I'm doing a great job and they are very impressed with what I have done with what I was given.

We were outputting our show today so I stuck around work until 9am, before I left I made sure everyone was good and didn't need anything from me. I headed home and waited for the email to let me know that the show was ready and that I could send out the link and all. Well I get a text at 11pm saying that they just got the show and that it's in the process of outputting. That normally takes about an hour or so. Finally around 1am I call and asked what's going on and find out that they are having issues with the output and that they are working on a solution. I tell them I need to get some sleep and to call me when it's done.

So I go to bed around 1am and can't really sleep as I'm waiting for this call. Around 3:30am I get a call telling me that it's almost done and that they are sending me the links. I get up out of bed and head to my office where I spend the next hour checking the links and cuts making sure everything is good to go and then sending out the emails to he network. I finally got back to bed around 4:30am. That was one long day.

Work Woes Continue

Well it was your typical work Monday, busy, stressful and just crazy. The show is moving along at full speed. It was a busy day but busy is good as it makes the day just fly by.

I got home and just wanted to relax. I didn't feel like playing LOTRO or edit more podcasts (which I really should do). I just sat and watched TV and vegged.

Well at 9:30pm I got a call from work, the person on the other line was extremely upset with me. Earlier in the night I had sent out an email with my update on the status of Post. I send this email out every night. Well tonight's email I mentioned something that, to me, isn't a big deal but to the Executive Producer it was and she was not happy and in turned call this person with her grievances, in which this person called me with her grievances.

I assured this person that I didn't do this on purpose or with any malicious intend. I was being honest in the email and it never crossed my mind that it was a problem.

Needless to say it just further soured my thoughts to this job and after I got off the phone I felt sick to my stomach and went to bed. Of course I didn't see and tossed and turned all night.

Not the best way to start a work week.

A Thankful Geek

While hiking at Vasquez Rocks today and walking back to the car, walking in front of me was Robert, Rupert and Brett, next to me was Aaron and Josh and behind me was Anthony and Michele. Robert, Rupert and Brett were joking around and laughing and that sight made my heart smile and it hit me that this band of geeks I have assembled are the outcasts, the odd balls, the lonely and we've come together to form this incredible group of friends (The Geek Mob). I have searched my entire life for a group of friends like these and it took to age 40, but I finally have them and I am so thankful.

I have to thank The Guild & Felicia Day, if there was no Guild I don't know if any of us would actually have met. But that's all it took.. because once we met, I made it my job to make sure we stayed together. In order to see these guys every month I created the Movie Marathon Weekends and they have become so epic, so amazing that folks would drive or fly for six to seven hours just to be part of them.. how cool is that.

It goes to show you that even though you are not the popular kid, or a bit odd or socially awkward that there is a group of people who will love you no matter what and accept you just the way you are.

Thank you guys for accepting me.. just the way I am.

Geek Mob Rules!!!!

Superman Movie Marathon - Sunday

Got up and made some breakfast, this time it was eggs, sausage, potatoes and toast. Ate breakfast and planned out our day. First up was Vasquez Rocks. It was cold in the 40's and the wind was blowing but it's a tradition so we bundled up and headed out. I can say that it's an experience, hiking in the cold weather getting hit by extremely cold breezes. I figured we'd hike for about 15 minutes and then be on our way but once out there folks were actually having fun. It was fun almost being blown over by gusts of winds while standing on the edge of a hilltop. In the end we actually hiked for about an hour and a half... good times were had.

Once back home we continued our Superman marathon, this time we watched something that I had not seen yet. It was the animated movie Superman and Batman: Public Enemies. It was very enjoyable. This is the first Superman cartoon I have seen since the old Justice League. I hope to see many more.

We grabbed some lunch (leftover sandwiches from yesterday) and started watching Smallville. We watched the first two episodes of Season 1. I've seen Smallville season 1 and 2 and the start on 3 but I do own seasons 1 - 9 on DVD and plan to watch the rest one day. Those who hadn't seen Smallville seemed to really enjoy it. Anthony and Michele left after Smallville leaving Rupert, Robert, Brett, Aaron and Josh

We debated on watching another of the Superman movies but instead, and keeping with the theme of superheros we watched Pixar's Incredibles.  That's one of my favorites from Pixar.  After the movie Brett, Aaron and Robert headed home. That left Josh, Rupert and I to watch the Oscars. I normally don't watch the Oscars live but since I was watching with folks we did exactly that.

I actually really enjoyed this years Oscars and host Seth MacFarlene. Maybe it was because I was watching with friends. Something I haven't done in a while. Normally I watch them as mentioned recorded and speed through the boring stuff. But it was fun watching them live and then watching twitter as it exploded every time a category was announced.

After the Oscars Josh and Rupert departed and that officially ended my Superman Movie Marathon.

I'm glad I started these marathon's back up as it was fun seeing my friends and hanging out for the weekend. Not sure when I'll have the next one and I'm not sure how big it will be. I know we have Wondercon coming up in March so I might plan another event for April.. stay tuned.

You can check out more pictures HERE

Superman Movie Marathon - Saturday

Today started like most of my other movie marathons days.. with breakfast. I was making biscuits and gravy for everyone. We debated on watching Galaxy Quest while eating breakfast (this has kind of become a tradition), but instead we opted to just sit around the dining table and chat. After breakfast we just hung out and played a round of Cards Against Humanity.

After noon I started to get food ready. Jes arrived and we started our first movie Superman The Movie. About fifteen minutes in my buddy Josh arrived and joined the fun. As well as my buddy Will and his girlfriend Becca, who I hadn't met yet. After Superman we took a break, snacked and chatted. Our second movie of the day was Superman II. I thought I had the Donner cut but unfortunately I did not, so we watched the original. Superman II is still my favorite of all the Superman movies.

After the second movie we headed out to dinner, for Saturday dinner we normally do Pizza as it's easy but several folks were on special diets so the suggestion that we go to Chipotle was offered up and everyone loved the idea.. so off to Chipotle we go.

After dinner we headed back to my place. We debated on watching another movie or play some games. The majority voted for games and guess which game we played.. yep you guested it Cards Against Humanity. We had a large number of players which made the game last for 2 and a half hours. It was all kinds of awesome.

We said our goodbyes to Will and Becca and started a fire. Like yesterday we just sat around the fire and chatted for about four hours before calling it a night and going to bed. Now that Jes lives so much closer she called it a night and headed home.

I have band hard alcohol at my parties temporarily, which in turns makes for very mellow but loads of fun parties. Do I miss all the craziness, I hate to admit it but I do. Don't get we wrong, it's nice to just chill and hang with friends but getting crazy and wild can be fun as well.

Still have another day chuck full of Superman goodness.

You can check out more pictures HERE

Mister Bilbo

So my friend Anthony came over with his new wife Michele (who is awesome) tonight. And she came in with this piece of canvas. She turned it around for us to see and I was totally amazed. She painted this for me in two days... how amazing is that, talk about talent. It's a portrait of Bilbo Baggins from The Hobbit movie. It's so detailed and awesome. I really didn't know what to say but Thank you. It's a beautiful piece and I can't wait to hang it up in my house and show it off for all to see. BTW she's titled it "Purple Bilbo", seems appropriate.

iPhone 5 & Weekend Fun

TGIF is all I was thinking today. It's been a long week and it's finally coming to an end. Also this weekend is another of my infamous weekend movie marathon parties... and I so can't wait for it.

I did manage to get my new iPhone 5 work, connected and looking great. Such a huge difference from the iPhone 3GS. I mean 4G alone is amazing. The screen is larger, the speed is much faster and the battery life is amazing. I'm slowly learning the phone. Still haven't played with Siri much so I look forward into delving into that more. I'm very happy that I went with he iPhone 5.

7pm came and I was out of work in a shot. I had to get home as I did have people coming over early (as it's become a tradition). So I needed to be there when they arrived. I made it home, ate dinner and had a half hour to relax before my first guest arrived. Aaron came at 8:30 sharp which is amazing since he drives from San Diego and traffic is always unpredictable. Not long after Rupert, Brett, Michele, Anthony and finally Robert arrived. We played some Cards Against Humanity (it's are go to game now) and then sat around the fireplace for about 2 hours just relaxing, talking and enjoying ones company. It was a great way to end what was a very stressful week. And a great way to start what will be an awesome weekend.

Bros Bros and More Bros

I had the honor of having lunch today with my buddy Will. Will and I don't get to hang out as much as we would like but the time we do spend together is very important to me. Today he came to my work, parked and we walked up with the hill to Universal City Walk. When we got there we decided to have lunch at Hard Rock Cafe. It was another fun get together. We chatted about work, life and our usual stuff. Will has always felt like a little brother to me. I've always been there to listen to and offer advice on various things happening in his life. And though many years have past we still have that kind of relationship and I'm so thankful.

After work today I headed over to my buddy Robert's place. We are continuing our Buffy rewatch/ 1st time watching. Unlike Will I haven't known Robert for that long but from the moment we met I felt as if I have known him my entire life. We have become the best of friends and I love hanging with him. Of all my "close" friend Robert is the one I hang with the most. Today we were having Italian for dinner and continuing with Season four of Buffy. We watched three episodes tonight, starting with Fear Itself. Fun episode, great ending and fun to see a different side to Giles. Our second episode was Beer Bad. This is unanimously considered the worst Buffy episode ever. I don't think it's the best and maybe it's low on the list of rewatch for me but even Buffy's worse is still 100 times better then other TV shows. Our final episode for the evening was Wild at Heart. This was the end of the Oz and Willow relationship. I love Oz but I'm happy to see him go as that means we will be seeing Tara (who I love). It was a great episode to end the night with.

It was nice to get a break from the crazies that is my job to have lunch with Will and then to decompress and hang with Robert after a long day of work. Bros are the best.

Mistaken Identity

At work we have to valet our cars as parking is in short supply and they normally stack the cars. I got off work today and headed over to the Valet area and they were super busy. There were two of them and they were running around. The parking was the worst I had ever seen. I waited about five minutes and the guy finally came over to me and I gave him my ticket. The night guy never brings my car around he always just hands me my ticket and then I go search for my car (luckily they park it in the same general area). Well today it was in the same area but it was blocked in. I walked back over to the valet station and as I was standing there a group of older woman came out of the restaurant next door (who also uses the valet parking). This blonde white woman (looked very well off), approached me with a $20 and said in a very loud and slow tone. "Do you have change for a, $20 your friend is pulling my car around and I want to give you guys a great tip." I looked at her, smiled and said "I'm sorry but I don't work for the valet" in perfect English of course. You could tell she was embarrassed and I really didn't take offense to it until she said "Well it's an honest mistake... I mean you have keys in your hand and your..."she didn't finished the sentence and kind of laughed and walked over to her friends as their car was being pulled around. It was a very strange experience.

New Credit Card

So I've been wanting to do this for a while,  My friend Sebastian, uses nothing but a credit card to pay for everything and get's cash back/points for every purchase. Since my best friend lives in Montana I thought it would be cool to get a credit card that I could do the same.. but instead of cash back I get points towards air miles. I bank with Bank of America and while on their site I noticed an ad for a credit card for travel miles. Now with most of these kinds of credit cards you have to pay a yearly fee, but this one you did not. Of course you're not getting huge amounts of point per dollar but I liked what I saw and signed up. I was approved in minutes and a few days later I got the credit card. I have been using it for everything since. If I spend $500 within 90 days I'll get an extra 10,000 points = $100. So I figure I'll get $1 for every 100 points. I get 1.5 points per dollar spent. Like I said it's not huge but any amount will help when it come to buying airline tickets. I'm going to try and pay for everything via the card and get the most out of the points I can. 

Hard Drive Woes

Since my hard drive crashed last month I have been slowly realizing the extent of what was lost. It was my main external hard drive, especially for my podcasts. But I'm not realizing how much I've actually lost until I go looking for something and can't find it. Today I was trying to finish up my next MASH 4077 podcast. All I have left to do is add audio from the episodes. I realized that I lost all my electronic versions of MASH episodes as they were on that drive so I no longer have any audio for the episodes. I don't even have the episodes on DVD (those went with Harry).. so what to do in a pinch.. I tried to find the episode of MASH I'm currently working on online and did manage to get it but it's a version with the audio laugh track and it's so distracting and horrible that I decided to stop editing. Figured I'll take a few days to try and find a cleaner version. I hope I can but if not I'll use the one with the laugh track. At least it's only this one episode. If I have to I'll go out and buy the entire series on DVD.

Movie Marathon Weekends Return

So I haven't had an official movie marathon weekend since May of 2012... wow it's been a long time. I did have a rather large party for my 42nd Birthday in September and again a much smaller party for my 2012 Christmas party. But after this long break.. I've decided to have another movie marathon. This time we are watching all things Superman.

The reason I am writing this blog is because this event is going to be my smallest yet. I only invited 10 or so people. So alot of my friends did not get invited to this one. I had to be super selective and it was tough. I don't want folks to think that I am trying to keep this a secret.. I mean I blog, tweet and facebook too much to keep things a secret. So if you were not invited to this one please don't take it personally.. it doesn't mean we are not friends.

As I have mentioned several times on my blog, back in September for my Birthday weekend things kind of got out of hand and from that point on I swore off doing any more movie marathons or parties for that matter. But I miss everyone and I enjoy those weekends so much that I'm starting them back up.. but on a much smaller scale.

I'm sorry if you feel left out or that we are not good enough friends to be invited to this event, neither is done on purpose. I wish I could invite every one of you but my house and my nerves can't take it.

I'm going to continue to have these smaller parties and will continue to rotate my invited friends so everyone can enjoy the hospitalizes of Casa De Kenny.

And for those I'm not seeing this coming weekend I hope we get to hangout at Wondercon next month.

Podcasts, Taxes, Dinner and Snow

Today I had to go in and sign my tax forms, but my tax place didn't open until 10am. So I let work know that I was going to be coming in a bit later then usual. Lucky for me my tax place is in Burbank which isn't far from my job. So I had some time to kill as I got up at my regular time of 6:30am. I struggled to get out of bed and go do my cardio, but I did. Afterwards I had a few hours to kill so I started editing my next MASH 4077 Podcast. I actually got pretty far along before I had to head out to my tax guy.

Got to my tax place at 10, went in and singed the papers, paid for their service and headed into work. I got into work around 10:30am which is about an hour later then I usual get in. Work was crazy as expected but as I mentioned in a recent blog, I'm just going with the flow. I did have one funny thing happen to me while I was at lunch. I walk to local places for lunch and today I went to Carl's Jr. Went I exited the building I notice that the ground was wet, it had rained. I did not bring my umbrella to work today as it wasn't rainy near me. I took my chance and walked about 15 minutes to Carls. I made it there nice a dry. I ordered my food, sat down and started eating when I noticed that folks were coming in with umbrellas and they looked wet. Sure enough it was raining and hard. I was almost done with food and didn't have clue how I was going to get back to work unsoaked. I waited an extra twenty minutes and when it looked like it had died down I made a run for work.. well I didn't actually run. I did walk a bit faster and it did start to rain a bit but I made it back to my office fairly dry.

After work I had dinner with my long long friend, Craig. We haven't seen each other for over five years. We've talked here and there but this was the first time we've seen each other in a long time. It was great seeing him and catching up on his life. He has some health issues and recently had a double stroke four days apart. Luckily he had recovered and doing well. We plan to hang out more often. He has rats as pets, and I used to have rats as pets and love them. He introduced me to two new little girls that he got and I am now considering getting some rats to keep me company.

It has been raining on and off all day at work so when I got home I expect there to be snow and sure enough.. there was. It wasn't alot as it just got cold enough for the rain to turn to snow. I expect that I'll wake up to a snowy winter land. The downside is that Fedex left a package on my doorstep. This package was covered in snow and ice when I got home and was soaked through and through. It was my new iPhone 5 and luckily for me the iPhone is sealed in plastic so only the paperwork was wet. I can't wait to get my phone charged and operational.

Knights of the Guild Ep 47

Download from itunes: bit.ly/KotGCast, Stitcher Radio ow.ly/hEXjY or Listen, get direct download bit.ly/2CrYxk 

 

Show Notes:

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This episode I sit down with Felicia Day and talk about the creation of season six as well as episode one.

Enjoy,

~Kenny~

Working Out and Podcasts

So I started working out again this morning. It was freezing and I didn't want to get out of bed, but I did. I'm only doing cardio at the moment and after a few weeks I'll start weight training again. I'm also determined to drink 2 liters of water everyday. I rarely drink water and really need to force myself to drink more. Let's hope I can continue this so I can lose this unwanted weight.

I wish every drive to work was as empty as it was today. That's one good thing about working on a holiday.. Traffic is normally very light.

When I got home from work today I was determined to edit a new episode of Knights of the Guild. I have been really slacking when it has come to Knights of the Guild podcast. Part of me was disappointed that I wasn't able to create companioncasts for season six like I had done in the past. But with my work schedule at the time and the availability of the cast members I wasn't able to get as many interviews as I was hoping. I tried to set up interviews afterwards but everyone is so busy. So I decided that I'll just do regular episodes and sprinkle interviews that I did get with cast members throughout. I hope to release two episodes of month.. but right now I'm struggling to just get one out. So I got home around 8pm, ate dinner and then jumped on the avid. I edited for four hours and finally finished a new episode. I immediately uploaded it to podbean but didn't post anything about it since it was so late.

I was very tired but also very happy that I finally got a new episode done.

It's All About Family

Today was spent with my family, more specifically my Dad, Brother, Sister-in-law, Nephew and Niece. They live out in Riverside and it takes me about an hour and 45 minutes to get there so I don't see them as much as I would like to but I try and get down there twice a month. Family has always been super important to me and I really want to be a presence in my niece and nephews lives. I want to be their favorite uncle and look forward to my visits.

I was excited because today I got to show off my new car to the family. Dad really liked it... I got to have lunch with my Dad at my favorite Chinese restaurant, Hong Kong. Then I got to play Xbox Wipeout with my nephew Kenobi, while visiting Bro, sis-in-law and baby Molly... it was some good times.

I left around 4pm, got home close to 6, watched some TV and finished off my weekend with some LOTRO. Not a bad way to end a busy weekend.